78 



Wonders of the Bird World 



kinds of food, but as to its walking, Dr. Becker says — 

 " When it rose, it did so witli difficulty, the wings assisting. 

 Once on its legs, it ran sometimes, often falling down, 

 however, in consequence of the want of strength to move 

 properly the large and heavy bones of its legs." When 

 adult, however, the Lyre-birds have immense strength in 

 their legs, and have been known to jump from the ground 

 to a branch of a tree fully ten feet off, and then bound by 

 similar leaps to the other branches. 



Prince Albert's Lyre-bird is said to be superior in voice 

 and power of imitation to the common species, and Mr. A. 

 A. Leycester, in his account of the bird on the Richmond 

 River in New South Wales, states that " one of these birds 

 had taken up its quarters within two hundred yards of a 

 sawyer's hut, and he had made himself perfect in all the 

 noises of the sawyer's homestead — the crowing of the cocks, 

 the cackling of the hens, the barking and howling of the 

 dogs, and even the painful screeching of the sharpening 

 or filing of the saw." Like many other birds of beautiful 

 decoration, the Lyre-bird has its playing-ground in which 

 to disport, and each pair of birds appears to have its own 

 particular district, and does not encroach upon that of its 

 neighbours. I have already alluded to the playing-ground 

 of Menura superba, and the manoeuvres of M. alberti would 

 seem to be very similar, except that its song is finer than 

 in the other species, just as it is also a better mimic. Mr. 

 Leycester has watched these birds performing, and says 

 that, when singing, they spread their tails over their head 

 like a Peacock, and droop their wings to the ground, and 

 at the same time scratch and peck up the earth. 



Although in the case of many species which have rackets 

 or wire-like feathers, we are ignorant as to the fact whether 

 the birds assist in trimming them with their bill, with 

 the Motmots [AToiiio/us) the case is different, for here we 

 know that the birds do actually trim their centre tail- 



